BRITAIN: Genetically modified crops have a significant impact on the environment, according to comprehensive new research published in Britain.The UK government-funded report does not decide, however, whether the changes will be for good or ill.
Lobby groups were quick to fill this void yesterday as they reacted to the study of how growing genetically modified (GM) crops might affect farmland biodiversity.
Greenpeace described the research as a "political fudge" but also claimed it "clearly" showed GM crops damaged the environment.
The UK's Agricultural Biotechnology Council, which represents GM firms such as Monsanto, argued that the same research showed GM crops could "benefit the environment".
Monsanto yesterday dismissed suggestions that the report caused its decision earlier this week to close a key cereal crop research unit in Cambridge with the loss of 80 jobs.
The company would actively pursue GM crop research in Europe, it stated yesterday.Monsanto for years led the corporate charge in support of the introduction of GM technology, successfully pushing for GM crop trials in the Republic and Britain.
The report is the result of a three year, farm-scale evaluation of how plant, insect and invertebrate biodiversity changes in fields carrying GM crops.
The research was published yesterday in Philosophical Transactions: Biological Sciences, a journal of the Royal Society. The Society is Britain's leading scientific body and its involvement adds considerable weight to the report.
The findings unequivocally indicate that GM crops cause significant changes in biodiversity, with the changes dependent on the crop and the weed or insect species examined. Fields with GM rapeseed and sugar beet strongly depressed biodiversity compared to fields with conventionally grown plants, but GM maize typically had increased weed and insect diversity.
The studies "arguably constitute the most comprehensive and realistic experimental assessment yet undertaken of ecological impacts resulting from agricultural change", the authors state.
"It is accepted, however, that the choice of a comparable system as a benchmark may be enough to change a given ecological impact from being considered a hazard to being considered a benefit," they add. The experiments involved planting a field half with GM crops and half with conventional crops using rapeseed, sugar beet and maize.
The society's publication included eight papers, looking at the effects on weeds, insect populations, invertebrates and changes in field margins. The researched delivered highly variable impacts depending on what GM crop was studied.
The better weed control in GM beet and rapeseed stands reduced the number of weeds and weed seeds in the ground, but GM maize actually increased weed production. The insect and invertebrate numbers and species rose and fell depending on whether there were more or fewer weeds. "One species of carabid beetle that feeds on weed seeds was less frequent in \ beet and oilseed rape, but more frequent in \ maize, showing how the numbers in some invertebrates tracked the amounts of food available to them," according to the society's analysis of the results.
The research also showed that there were smaller numbers of butterflies recorded in GM rapeseed and smaller numbers of bees, butterflies and true bugs found in GM beet.